Posted February 27, 2008 and published in the Call and Post Newspaper. This is a one-on-one interview with Barack Obama (pictured) by  journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who covered the presidential election for the Call and Post in 2008, including some 26 published articles.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com)/(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).

(Below is a reprint of the one-on-one interview with Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman and now U.S. President Barack Obama. It was published on February 27, 2008, days before Ohio's March 4 Democratic Primary, and ran as a cover story in the Call & Post Newspaper, Ohio's most prominent Black print newspaper with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Then a junior senator from Illinois, Obama won in the largely Black 11th congressional district, which includes the city of Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs, but lost Ohio's Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton in 2008. He went on to win the Democratic nomination and ultimately the presidency over Republican nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain. America's first Black president, Obama won a second four-year-term in 2012).

A one-on-one interview with Barack Obama by reporter Kathy Wray Coleman.

Published February 27, 2008 in the Call and Post Newspaper

CLEVELAND, Ohio-On Monday the Call & Post had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Illinois Sen.Barack Obama in an exclusive interview. The nation's first Black presidential front runner is in a heated race with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America. Both hope to win Ohio's March 4 Democratic primary by wooing voters in Cuyahoga County's delegate-rich 11th Congressional District, which is majority Black, and includes the city of Cleveland].

Sen. Obama's stances on many issues are relatively known and have become part of the core of his campaign platform. He is pro choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-labor and anti- the North American Free Trade Agreement in its current form. He voted against the Iraq War. Additionally, the senator supports stem cell research and universal health care. He also advocates a timely end to the Iraq war and a revision of the Republican-centered No Child Left Behind Act. Unlike Sen . Clinton, he supports the retroactive application of the new sentencing guidelines recently adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court to address the racial disparities between crack and powder cocaine.

Call & Post:

Let's talk a little bit about Barack the candidate, and about your position on issues that may or may not be widely known to Ohioans and other members of the American public, the Black community in particular.

Sen. Barack Obama:

Okay

CP:

People are excited about the recent endorsement from Don King and the Call & Post of your candidacy for president of the United States of America. It is not easy getting an endorsement from Mr. King.

Sen. Barack Obama:

Thank you Kathy, for this interview, and give my thanks to Don King and the Call & Post.

CP:

What advice do you have for at-risk Black males in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and elsewhere who are on the verge of giving up because of the obstacles that they routinely face?

BO:

You can't give up. I was raised by a single mother. My father left when I was two- years old. Giving up is no solution. They must stay in the books and strive to be successful.

CP:

What are you major concerns about the North American Free Trade Agreement?

BO:

I am against NAFTA in its current form. Trade agreements without strong labor and environmental standards undercut workers and unions and permit corporations to leave this country and take the jobs with them.

CP:

The Cleveland Voucher Program was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 as constitutionally sound, under the rationale that the public monies used to send students to private schools went to the parents not the students. In spite of this decision by the high court, is it your position that school vouchers violate the separation of church and state clause of the First Amendment as to the prohibitive use of public monies to fund private education?

BO:

Yes. I am against the use of public monies to support private schools. We should be supporting teachers and reinvesting in our public schools.

CP:

What would you recommend as an effective mechanism for monitoring the achievement gap between Black and White students in Cleveland's public schools in the absence of the now defunct desegregation court order that once measured the successes and failures of Black children, and in consideration of your promise to revise the Republican-centered No Child Left Behind Act?

BO:

The No Child Left Behind Act actually has provisions for monitoring the achievement gap between Black and White children. Whether they are doing it on the local level, I don't know.

CP:

What is your position on the urban agenda, described as Cleveland's blueprint for the future, that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has offered to enhance the future of the predominantly Black major metropolitan city?

BO:

I have pledged $10 billion for foreclosure relief, if elected president. This would be relief for Cleveland and other cities.

CP:

You have said that the No Child Left Behind Act needs revision. What is your major concern?

BO:

There should not be punishment for standardized testing. And let me again add that we have got to support teachers and reinvest in our public schools.

CP:

Will Blacks and women be represented in your cabinet if you are elected president of the United States of America?

BO:

Yes

CP:

Last year a bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision that struck down public school intra-district choice plans in Seattle, WA and in Louisville, Ky., saying they relied on an unconstitutional use of racial criteria. Some believe that this ruling is contrary to the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation in public education. Do you agree and what is your position on this issue, given that you are a former Civil Rights attorney?

BO:

I do believe that the decision is contrary to Brown vs. Board of Education. I think the Supreme Court ruling was wrong. Voluntary efforts to desegregate public schools are supported by the Constitution.

CP:

Who is your favorite actress or actor and what is your favorite past time?

BO:

My favorite actor is Denzel Washington and my favorite past time is playing with my daughters.

CP:

Thank you senator for permitting the Call & Post to get to know you better.

BO:

Thank you Kathy.